differenthistoryfandomcom-20200215-history
Werwolf Germany
Werwolf (pronounced ˈveːɐ̯vɔlf, German for "werewolf") was a Nazi plan, which began development in 1942-1943, to create a resistance force which would operate behind enemy lines as the Allies and Soviets advanced through Germany. Ultimately, Werwolf's propaganda value was felt throughout occupied Germany. Werwolf forces would put up stubborn resistance and eventually, over the course of 3 stubborn years of gorilla war, would succeed in establishing a provisional fascist government in much of former Nazi Germany in July 1947. During The Closing Years Of WW2 The name was chosen after the title of Hermann Löns' novel, Der Wehrwolf, first published in 1910. Set in the Celle region (Lower Saxony) during the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), the novel concerns a peasant named Harm Wulf. After marauding soldiers kill his family, Wulf organises his neighbours into a militia who pursue the soldiers mercilessly and execute any they capture, while referring to themselves as Wehrwölfe. Löns wrote that the title was a dual reference to the fact that the peasants put up a fighting defence (sich wehren, see "Bundeswehr" – Federal Defense) and to the protagonist's surname of Wulf, but it also had obvious connotations with the word Werwölfe in that Wulf's men came to enjoy killing. While Löns was not himself a Nazi (he died in 1914), his work became popular with the German far right, and the Nazis celebrated it. Indeed, Celle's local newspaper began serialising Der Wehrwolf in January 1944. Werwolf commanders were sometimes ordered to fight in the last years of World War II for the Third Reich on the Eastern/Western fronts but very few Werwolf commanders would comply as this would conflict with their goals. The Werwolf resistance movement still received very good amounts of supplies and financial backing by Nazi Germany in preparation for the more and more apparent German defeat, and by late 1944 almost all of Germany's remaining resources were supplied to the Werwolf movement. In late summer/early autumn 1944, Heinrich Himmler initiated Unternehmen Werwolf (Operation Werwolf), ordering SS Obergruppenführer Hans-Adolf Prützmann to begin organising an elite troop of volunteer forces to operate secretly behind enemy lines. As initially conceived, these Werwolf units were intended to be legitimate uniformed military formations trained to engage in clandestine operations behind enemy lines in the same manner as Allied Special Forces such as Commandos. Prützmann was named Generalinspekteur für Spezialabwehr (General Inspector of Special Defence) and assigned the task of setting up the force's headquarters in Berlin and organising and instructing the force. Prützmann had studied the guerrilla tactics used by Soviet partisans while stationed in the occupied territories of Ukraine, and the idea was to teach these tactics to the members of Operation Werwolf. Rumors of a secret Nazi guerrilla organization began to surface soon after the Allied invasion of Normandy. TIME magazine ran an article containing speculation that the Germans would try to prolong the war indefinitely by going underground after their defeat. The January 27, 1945 issue of Collier's Weekly featured a detailed article by Major Edwin Lessner, stating that elite SS and Hitler Youth were being trained to attack Allied forces and opening with a 1944 quote from Joseph Goebbels: "The enemy (invading German territory) will be taken in the rear by the fanatical population, which will ceaselessly worry him, tie down strong forces and allow him no rest or exploitation of any possible success." On March 23, 1945, Goebbels gave a speech known as the "Werwolf speech", in which he urged every German to fight to the death. The partial promotion of the organised Werwolf, combined with the effects of the Werwolf speech, caused considerable confusion about which subsequent attacks were carried out by Werwolf members, as opposed to solo acts by fanatical Nazis or small groups of SS, although it has been confirmed all Nazi resistance groups had began cooperating to some extent by this point in the war. The Werwolf propaganda station "Radio Werwolf" broadcast from Nauen near Berlin, beginning on 1 April 1945. Broadcasts began with the sound of a wolf howling, and a song featuring the lyrics, "My werewolf teeth bite the enemy / And then he's done and then he's gone / Hoo, hoo hoo." The initial broadcast stated that the Nazi Party was ordering every German to "stand his ground and do or die against the Allied armies, who are preparing to enslave Germans. Every Bolshevik, every Englishman, every American on our soil must be a target for our movement ... Any German, whatever his profession or class, who puts himself at the service of the enemy and collaborates with him will feel the effect of our avenging hand ... A single motto remains for us: 'Conquer or die.' " British and American newspapers widely reported the text of Radio Werwolf broadcasts, fueling rumors among occupation forces. Armed Forces Radio reminded American soldiers that: "Every friendly German civilian is a disguised soldier of hate. Armed with the inner conviction that the Germans are still superior ... believe that one day it will be their destiny to destroy you. Their hatred and their anger ... are deeply buried in their blood. A smile is their weapon by which to disarm you ... In heart, body and spirit every German is Hitler." This quote was flipped by the Werwolfs to sound encouraging to the German people, and used as propaganda by Werwolf commanders to recruit more Germans into the Werwolf movement and other related movements. Gauleiters were to suggest suitable recruits, who would then be trained at secret locations in the Rhineland and Berlin. The chief training centre in the West was at Hülchrath Castle near Erkelenz, which by early 1945 was training around 20,000 recruits mostly drawn from the Hitler Youth. Werwolf originally had about fifty thousand members recruited from the SS and the Hitler Youth. These recruits were specially trained in guerrilla tactics. Operation Werwolf went so far as to establish front companies to ensure continued fighting in those areas of Germany that were occupied (all of the "front companies" were discovered and shut down within eight months). However, as it became clear that the reputedly impregnable Alpine Fortress, from which operations were to be directed by the Nazi leadership if the rest of Germany, was occupied, Werwolf was subsequently converted into a terrorist organisation in the last few weeks of the war. Post-War Werwolf Movement During the opening day of the nuremberg trials the bulk of the Werwolf forces focused on saving prominent Nazi figures from nuremburg. Werwolf forces used small scale gorilla war and some tweaked Blitzkrieg style tactics, and successfully infiltrated the building in which the tribunal was beginning and successfully smuggled out Hermann Göring, Rudolf Höss, Joachim von Ribbentrop and Alfred Rosenberg while subsequently killing Major General Iona Nikitchenko, Lord Justice Colonel Sir Geoffrey Lawrence, John J. Parker and François de Menthon during the invasion of the building. All former Nazi officials were smuggled out of Nuremburg and given similar positions in government to those they had held, while Göring was announced the future Fuhrer of the up-and-coming Fourth Reich. Werwolf forces used the invasion of Nuremburg as propaganda, sparking uprisings across West-Central Germany. To be continued Category:Werwolf Germany